Sarah grew up in the forests of Maine, following her father on hunts. They approached each kill with something close to reverence, honouring the sacrifice the animal made and the sustenance it provided through winter.
Now, she’s a final year PhD student in southern California, caught in an entirely different landscape of extreme wealth and raging wildfires. She spends her time worrying about how she’ll be able to get a permanent academic position, and also doing ketamine and watching 80s movies with her best friend, Nathan.
Nathan was the only person to believe Sarah when she was assaulted by a fellow student during her first year. When he’s found dead of an alleged heroin overdose, Sarah is convinced it is a murder but, once again, the police don’t believe her. As she digs into the case, she stumbles upon a disturbing pattern in the deaths of other young men on campus and begins to piece together a possible link between the victims.
Now, Sarah must confront a different type of killing to any she’s ever known – and decide if it can be justified.
I was lucky enough to be gifted an advance copy of this book for the purpose of review, so my thanks go to Caitlin Raynor of Wildfire Books for inviting me to read it. I have reviewed the book honestly and impartially.
This book is a searing and quite agonising exploration of misogyny, rape culture, power and submission, societal inequality and the path through trauma which I found both harrowing and compelling and almost too painfully honest. Not a book for the faint-hearted or squeamish but definitely one for anyone who wants to confront the truth about inequality on every front in modern society.
Sarah is a post-graduate student, living hand to mouth, as she attempts to complete her PhD at a Californian college. Her supervisor seems disinterested in aiding Sarah in completing her thesis for reasons of her own, she has only one friend, Nathan, who has troubles of his own, and she is trying to process the trauma of being raped by a classmate, a crime for which there has been no punishment or resolution. All this time, wildfires are raging around LA. Then Sarah finds her friend dead of a suspected overdose, but something about his death does not seem right. Sarah becomes convinced that Nathan was murdered and that his death may be linked to the deaths of other young men on campus.
Sarah is confronted on all sides by obstacles to her advancement – in her studies, in her living conditions, in the treatment of her assault case – each of which just serves to highlight ever way in which she is hampered by inequality. She is poor, she has no family, she is a woman, she is at the mercy of people further up the academic hierarchy, she is married and unpartnered. In every way, society deems her ‘lesser’ and therefore, primed for poor treatment and it is difficult to see a way out for her.
This book tackles all of these topics head on and with unflinching honesty and brutality. Only Sarah’s persistence, anger and strength keep her going and enable her to refuse to be cowed and beaten down. She will fight to the bitter end, and this fight is the one thing that cannot be taken from her by anyone. Sarah’s life is a metaphor for society – in the face of oppression and discrimination, grim persistence is all that will keep us from sinking. Generations of people have fought to erase inequality and oppression and the fight continues, perhaps more so now than ever – this book is to be published at an opportune moment in time.
The book deals with some hard topics and at times may seem bleak, but the message is one of hope and persistence. The writer’s voice is sharp and unforgiving, carrying all objection before it. Inequality continues but we cannot surrender to it, or it will swallow us and all we are whole. We owe it to ourselves to resist, and we perhaps owe it to ourselves to read books like this which remind us how the world is and how much work there is to do, but what can be achieved if people refuse to lie down and accept it. A powerful novel that reminds us to be true to ourselves and our beliefs.
Notes on Surviving the Fire will be published in hardback, ebook and audiobook on 25 February and you can buy a copy here.
About the Author
Christine Murphy has lived, worked, and travelled in over 100 countries, including eleven months in a tent across the African continent and a year as a resident in a Buddhist nunnery in the Himalayas. She completed the world’s longest for-charity horse ride across Northern Mongolia, during which she broke her back (for the second time). A trained Buddhaologist, Christine has a PhD in Religious Studies.
Connect with Christine:
Instagram: @christinemurphyauthor
